Top 10 Most Disturbing Derren Brown Specials

#10: “Séance” (2004)

This was the second special ever produced by Brown. The setup was to get 12 students to perform a séance live. Brown decided to do this in Elton Hall, where 12 people took their own lives in a pact during the 70s. They chose one of the deceased to contact, named “Jane”. The special finished with them performing the séance, which led to Jane speaking through a student. The incident terrified the students, but in classic Derren Brown fashion, he revealed that the 12 deceased were fabricated. The point wasn’t to show séances are real, but that he could convince people to believe in them, which he did an excellent job of.

#9: “Messiah” (2005)

Next is his third special, in which he attempted to convince Americans that he had paranormal powers. He targeted people in five separate categories while disguising his identity. These categories included Christian evangelism, alien abduction, psychic powers, New Age theories, and communicating with the deceased. He ended up convincing all five of them that he had supernatural powers. It was intended to discuss confirmation bias, which is where someone ignores ideas contradictory to their beliefs and prefers to hear things that support their worldview. At the start, he said if anyone thought he was tricking them, he’d instantly admit to the scheme. Surprisingly, this never happened, showing the true power of confirmation bias.

#8: “Miracles for Sale” (2011)

Faith healing is a controversial practice, involving someone using religion to cure someone of their ailments. To criticise this practice, Brown took a random person from the street and then made them into a faith healer. To prove their skills, he took them across the pond to a church in Texas, where they gave a harrowingly convincing faith healing show. It revealed all the secret tricks of faith healers, which caused a stir among religious communities. In the end, the scuba instructor they chose did a miraculous job at becoming a faith healer, convincing a theater full of people he had powers.

#7: “The Great Art Robbery” (2013)

This special is centred around one of his more thrilling ideas. The concept was to teach a group of old people how to rob a valuable painting from an art collector. The collector was told the perpetrator, time, and place of the robbery. After three weeks of hard work, he converted four pensioners into skilled burglars. It also had an interesting message about how overlooked the elderly are in society. In the end, they managed to get away with the heist, perplexing the collector. The moral of the story: if you want to rob a painting, message Derren Brown.

#6: “Hero at 30,000 Feet” (2010)

An ordinary man named Matt Galley was the focus of this special. Brown chose him because he was in a bit of a tough period. He tried to help him out of this by putting him in various challenging scenarios. For instance, he was robbed and later strapped to a train track. Galley was additionally terrified of flying. To overcome this, Brown put him on a plane full of actors, barring the crew. During the flight, the pilot fell ill, so they asked for a passenger to step in and land the plane. Galley stepped up, and after a spot of hypnosis and trickery, believed he had landed the plane. Many believed it was fake, but Brown insisted that it was all real.

#5: “Apocalypse” (2012)

This special took a man named Steven, described as “lazy” and “irresponsible”, then threw him into a fake zombie apocalypse. Brown planned this one out extensively, making a compelling story for Steven to experience. He woke up two weeks after a meteorite destroyed the planet, where he met fellow survivors. Together, they endured the apocalypse, which sounds like great fun if you’re a teenage boy into zombie movies, but seriously traumatic for most people. It turned into one of his grandest schemes, all for the sake of fooling one man. Over 200 actors were used, and they even hacked his mobile.

#4: “The Heist” (2006)

This one is semi-similar to “The Great Art Robbery”, except they’re robbing a bank, and they don’t know Brown is manipulating them into it. He pretends it’s a motivational seminar, then convinces them to rob a security van. It proved successful, as he was able to convince three people to burgle the van without explicitly instructing them. Brown did it by using a variety of music, colors, and phrases to manipulate them into wanting to steal. He even gave them an appetite for crime by encouraging them to nab sweets from a shop, which led to a domino effect of them being willing to burgle the Bank of England.

#3: “Derren Brown Plays Russian Roulette Live” (2003)

Since it first aired, many have debated the authenticity of this special. As the name implies, Brown played Russian roulette live on TV, allegedly hidden away in Jersey. Most of the special was spent finding someone to play with, but the last 10 minutes were incredibly tense. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but some people have wondered if that was even possible. According to Jersey police, they used blanks to make it more safe. This is questionable since blanks are lethal at such short range, as pointed out by Brown. As such, no one knows how it was done, but he insists he was never truly in danger.

#2: “Pushed to the Edge” (2016)

This special had an exceedingly disturbing setup. Brown wanted to take a random person, then convince them to push someone else off a building. Four people were picked, who had their conformity tested. Brown told them all four had failed, but kept following one named Chris Kingston. After an elaborate scheme, he ultimately decides not to push the victim off a roof. Turns out, the three other individuals were also picked, and had all pushed the person over the edge. It provided a haunting insight into the dangers of social conformity, ending with Brown encouraging viewers to be careful of this form of manipulation.

#1: “Sacrifice” (2018)

Brown’s Netflix special once again put the life of an individual in the hands of a random person. The setup was to see if a man named Phil would be willing to take a bullet for someone, or if he would instead save his own skin. After manipulating Phil using a meditation app, he eventually makes his way to Los Angeles. There, Brown staged some drama involving a biker gang. A biker ends up threatening to shoot an alleged illegal immigrant, and Phil heroically steps in front of him, giving his life. If the bullet hadn’t been a fake, Phil would’ve likely been fatally wounded, as he was determined to save the life of a stranger.

Which Derren Brown special had you most on the edge of your seat? Let us know in the comments section!